FX Markets Hong Kong is where the buy-side and sell-side community comes together to learn, debate and network. With more than 150 leading FX professionals, it is the place to renew old acquaintancesâ¦

In its 16th year, FX Markets Asia continues to be the must-attend event for foreign exchange market practitioners. Join us at the conference to expand your network of senior contacts within the indusâ¦

FX Markets Australia 2020 will serve as the industry benchmark conference for professionals to gain insights from expert speakers and peers on the latest industry best practices, strategies to enhancâ¦

Chartis Research provides unrivalled, impartial and deep research and analysis on all aspects of the risk technology space, supporting the world’s top decision makers with outstanding risk technology insight and advice.

Best Banks Awards: Bloomberg

Bloomberg wins the Best Market Data Provider for FX category at the 2018 FX Week Best Banks Awards

Colin Gallagher, global head of FX data and analytics at Bloomberg, says clients are asking for more cryptocurrency data

Eva Szalay

26 Nov 2018

Tweet

Facebook

LinkedIn

Save this article

Send to

Print this page

The lure of cryptocurrencies is proving too strong for institutional market participants to reject. True, custody and settlement are just two of the issues holding back the process of institutionalisation, but the attraction of the extremely fragmented, volatile and unstructured crypto space is nudging it towards maturity.

Bloomberg, one of the world’s largest market data providers is no exception. It started displaying crypto prices on its Terminal in early 2014, garnering a slow but steady stream of interest from customers.

“That’s rapidly changed throughout 2017 and this year, with a lot more clients asking for connectivity to more data and exchanges in the space,” says Colin Gallagher, global head of FX data and analytics at Bloomberg, the winner of the Best Market Data Provider for FX category at the 2018 FX Week Best Banks Awards.

Gallagher says the company had to work quite actively to build out the Know Your Customer, anti-money laundering and other procedural steps, as well as to add the highly fractured underlying cryptocurrency data on to the Bloomberg Terminal. But it eventually even created a crypto index in partnership with Galaxy, in a bid to create a data offering that compares with other asset classes.

The BGCI index is designed to track the performance of the largest, most liquid portion of the cryptocurrency market, weighted by market capitalisation. Bloomberg’s FX team followed up with a crypto fix, dubbed CFix, which is designed for use as a reference point for digital currencies.

Clients are yearning for better and deeper data around crypto, and we are proud that the Terminal has become the landing page for information about the space

Colin Gallagher, Bloomberg

The rate is calculated daily, with Bloomberg’s BGN pricing algorithm providing the primary input. The algo produces accurate indications of bid and ask quotes derived from multiple sources approved by the firm.

“Clients are yearning for better and deeper data around crypto, and we are proud that the Terminal has become the landing page for information about the space,” says Gallagher. “We are working on building out a new dataset for crypto that’s comparable to our offering in other established asset classes.”

Bloomberg has also made strides with its FX benchmark, BFix, which became available as part of EBS’s e-fix product this year. BFix’s success is down to the burgeoning market share gains made in recent years by FXGO, the firm’s e-FX platform.

Local markets

Bloomberg has also expanded its footprint in local markets. In April, the Bankers Association of the Philippines selected Bloomberg as the new calculation agent for its USD/PHP spot reference rate, which is used extensively by on- and offshore banks, and buy-side market participants for execution, valuation and portfolio-benchmarking purposes.

The deal also means domestic member banks of BAP have migrated their trading in the peso to FXGO, which provides the input for the reference rate, and gives local regulators real-time visibility and greater oversight of activity in the market.

“Emerging markets have been a great growth story for us this year and we expect this to continue across regions,” Gallagher says.